


an unexpected path

by TheWritersUnited



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, I dunno what to put here lol, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers, no beta for this dumpster fire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:28:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22369453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWritersUnited/pseuds/TheWritersUnited
Summary: my WoL tries to cope with Hades' revelations, and G'raha tries to cope with the fact that he's still alive.
Relationships: G'raha Tia | Crystal Exarch/Warrior of Light
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	an unexpected path

**Author's Note:**

> I dont know what I'm doing, its been five million years since I wrote fanfiction and even longer since I shared it.

The Crystal Exarch was at a complete loss for words. For a century he had accepted that his life was the cost for saving the world, yet here he was. And so was the world.

And so was she. His inspiration. His everything. Zirnbahr Eifabyrtwyn was the woman he’d planned on dying to protect, whom he had learned to bend time and space to save. 

She stood, staring at the place where the last few motes of Hades shattered soul slowly fizzled out, lost deep in thought even as the Scions of the Seventh Dawn joyously clustered around her. 

He himself couldn't fathom her survival. She had quite literally been dying, yet somehow found the strength to drag herself all the way down to the Ascian’s false Amaurot with the sole intent to rescue him before she expired. In the moment when he faced the terrifying reality that he was about to watch her turn, something within her had clicked. And suddenly, her aether surged so brightly it felt scorching as the light of five wardens submitted completely to her will. And he found the impossible strength to summon allies to fight with her in his stead.

He had no words, but something had to be said. The Scions were here because of his mistakes.

And so, he timidly approached, wringing his hands in a nervous tic he thought he’d long since shed. Seven sets of eyes burned into him. Waiting.

“Ah… Where to start…?” He fidgeted, unable to meet their gaze. “I… I believe I owe you all an apology. And you most especially.”

His words were met with an unbearably long silence. He glanced up to see that not only had the tall Roegadyn managed to soundlessly step forward, she now knelt before him so they were eye to eye.

She hesitated for a moment before speaking. “If anyone here owes an apology, it is me. When you sealed yourself in the tower, I promised you I would build you a world worth waking up in. Instead, you woke up to the mess I left behind. I have failed you, utterly and completely.” Though her voice was even, tears streamed freely from her eyes. “I am so sorry, Raha.”

His breath hitched in his throat as a century's worth of walls built of duty and loneliness crumbled. Twice had his name passed her lips in its most personal form. The first, when she’d called out to him as the doors to the tower closed. He’d given her permission as a means to convey everything he was about to leave unsaid. The second, when she screamed his name as she lay dying, suffocating by the light he was killing himself to siphon away. It had been so quickly overshadowed by an even louder scream as the gunshot rang out.

And now, after all the pain and suffering he’d put her through, after he’d gambled with her life in the name of saving it, after everything he was trying to apologise for, she had the audacity to stand there and call him by the name he had not known for a century and ask his forgiveness.  
He collapsed into her, his inability to stand caused by emotion and exhaustion alike. She caught him with ease despite her surprise. He did not care that they had an audience. He leaned on her like his life depended on it and sobbed out a hundred years of yearning for her presence, all as she gently ran a hand over his back and muttered phrases of comfort. He felt light headed.

Far too light headed. 

He barely registered her stiffen and pull a hand away from his back to look at it. Her small gasp sounded like he was hearing her through water. So too did her words that followed.

“Help me stabilize him. We take the first airship to the Tower once we get to the surface. We need to get him back quickly.”

His vision blurred as he tried to stay conscious. Tried to assure her that he was fine, simply tired from all that had transpired. He felt the ground vanish beneath him as she cradled him in her arms before everything went dark.


End file.
